Growing Up Dixon
by LemonStar
Summary: ..Daryl/Beth.. From the "House Call" series. Three parts. Through the eyes of Luke, Hunter and Abby Dixon, small observations on Daryl and Beth Dixon. Domestic fluff.
1. Luke

**Just a short three-shot told from Luke, Hunter and Abby's POV. Sometimes, I get in these moods and I need to write something domestic.**

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 **1/3.** Luke.

He always remembered the first night he ever spent inside of their house. He was four-years-old and the Sheriff had come to pick him up at the daycare center and Beth had asked him if he wanted to come stay with her and Daryl for the night. He had been so ecstatic, he had hardly been able to talk and he hadn't thought of where his parents were and why he wasn't going home to them that night. Even at four-years-old, he already didn't even care.

Beth and Daryl lived in the woods, far from anyone else in town, and Luke ran inside as soon as the Sheriff's car stopped, looking around, wanting to take it all in. It was small and warm and smelled sweet like a mixture of vanilla and pumpkins. And it was clean. He had never been inside of a house as clean before.

He helped Beth make dinner, standing on a stool and she showing him how to stir the pot of noodles, and he had two big plates of the beef casserole before Beth asked him if he would like to take a bubble bath and he had nearly gasped because he had never taken a bubble bath before in his life.

And that first night, and the nights after, he slept on their couch with a soft pillow underneath his head and warm blankets covering him. Daryl and Beth paid their heating bill so as it began getting colder outside, he didn't wake up in the mornings, curled into a little ball, shivering violently. Beth always made sure he had plenty of blankets – soft fleece that always smelled like dryer sheets – and sometimes, in the mornings, he actually woke up, feeling too hot.

He'd go to the daycare center every morning with Beth and he wasn't the smelly kid anymore who had to ignore all of the kids laughing at him. He smelled like soap and his stomach never grumbled with hunger. Daryl and Beth didn't have a lot of money and yet, they weren't poor in the same way his parents had been poor. They still were able to have a nice house and buy food and they took Luke to the Salvation Army store where they got him new jeans and tee-shirts and sweatshirts and even new tennis shoes.

He had never felt so spoiled. So loved. And he knew they loved him. Beth would tell him, hugging him close and kissing his head and telling him that she loved him. And Daryl didn't say it but he showed him how to hunt and he let him help him when he was working on his bike outside and when Luke tripped and cut his knee open, Daryl moved quickly, swinging him up into his arms and carrying him inside where he cleaned his cut and put a band-aid over it for him.

"I'm sorry," Luke sniffled, his eyes wet with tears and feeling so _scared_ because he had ripped a hole in the jeans they had bought him.

Daryl was quiet but he put a hand on the side of his head so Luke looked at him. Daryl stared into his eyes and Luke saw nothing close to anger. "They're jus' jeans, Luke. As long as you're a'right."

Luke tried to not get comfortable. Daryl and Beth weren't his parents no matter how badly he wanted them to be. He wasn't a Dixon and this wasn't his home and he couldn't stay here forever. Even though every night as he laid on the couch, he closed his eyes and wished for more than anything that he could stay with them.

When Beth told him that she was going to have a baby, Luke smiled and was happy and excited and he had always wanted a little brother but he had to remind himself that this wasn't his little brother. It didn't matter that Daryl and Beth kept telling him that the baby was going to need him and they would need his help or that Daryl built an extra room onto their little house and put a bed in there for him and called it his room. It didn't matter that Daryl said he wasn't going anywhere.

Luke may have been little but he wasn't stupid. He couldn't stay because he didn't belong there. Eventually, his mom – his _real_ mom – would get out and come and take him back and that would be that. This time living with Daryl and Beth would eventually fade and start to feel nothing like more than a dream.

And Luke was so scared of that happening. Every day, he braced himself, wondering if this would be the day when he was finally taken away from them.

After Hunter was born, he tried to keep himself back. Hunter was the Dixon. Not him. Hunter was Daryl and Beth's son. Not him. He was just a visitor and he'd be leaving soon. He didn't belong here and every time Daryl took him hunting or Beth bought him new crayons or colored pencils, Luke tried to remind himself that this was all temporary. He was a Ridgeway and Hunter was a Dixon and he tried to never think about how he was jealous of a little baby.

One morning in the fall, the weekend before Halloween, Beth had Luke sit down on the couch and she sat down on one side of him and Daryl sat down on the other and Luke had absolutely no idea what was going on but he could sense it was something.

"Luke, how would you like to stay here with us longer?" Beth then asked.

Luke just looked at her. He didn't even think that was a question he had to answer. How would he like it? He had been wishing for nothing else for almost two years now. Having to leave them was his greatest fear and all he wanted was to be able to stay here where he would be warm and full and _safe_. He would never ask for anything ever again if he could just have that one thing.

Daryl cleared his throat a little. "Beth and me are workin' on a way for you to."

Luke looked him and he began to feel something soar in his chest. "How?" He asked.

Beth smiled a put a hand on the back of his head and Luke saw her eyes wet with tears. "We'd like to adopt you, Luke," she said. "If you'd like that."

Luke stared at her and he could feel a pounding in his ears. _If_ he'd like that?

And he felt tears brimming in his eyes and without answering either of them, he turned and threw his arms around Beth's neck and she laughed a little and hugged him close and he felt Daryl wrapping his arms around both of them.

Beth kissed his head and with her lips still in his hair, she whispered, "You're home now, Luke,", and Luke squeezed his eyes as tears leaked down his cheeks.

…

Daryl only let a few things pass but Luke knew that they had a lot in common. Not things that either of them wanted to necessarily remember but things all the same. If they were out in public and there was a loud noise – someone dropping a glass to the floor or someone shouting – they both flinched practically simultaneously and Luke thought he would grow out of always being scared but Daryl was a grown man and the bravest man he knew and if he still flinched, Luke knew he probably always would, too.

Hunter would never flinch though. He had no reason to. He had always had two parents who loved him and went to sleep every night in a safe house and never experienced pain or fear. But because he knew, because he had the same scars and flinched at the same noises, Luke thought that that's why Daryl took him out to the woods every weekend. It was something good and nice they could share together.

When Hunter was a little older, Daryl tried to take him out, too, with them to teach him how to hunt but Hunter was too loud and too impatient and despite his name, he had no interest in it. Luke would never say it but he was a little relieved with that because that meant that he and Daryl could still share it between just the two of them and even though Daryl and Beth had never acted like that and he had a new birth certificate that said his name was Luke _Dixon_ , he guessed a part of him was still worried that Daryl and Beth would look to Hunter as their true son.

Luke told himself not to be stupid. He was their son. Even when he was still a Ridgeway, he knew he was already a Dixon.

And they loved him as much as he loved them.

Calling Beth "mommy" was easy and the first time he said it, it was when he had a cold and he was in bed and she brought him chicken noodle soup. She sat on the edge of the bed and spoon-fed him and she was so loving and caring, he felt an ache twist in his chest from the overwhelming emotion of it all.

"Thank you, mommy," he murmured once the bowl was empty and he was lying back down as she covered him with the blankets.

Beth looked at him for a moment with a small smile and tears in her eyes and she leaned in and kissed him on the forehead. "Sweet dreams," she whispered.

Calling Daryl "daddy" didn't come as easy. He had been calling him that in his head for so long but he didn't know if he would ever be able to say the word out loud. Hunter was already speaking a few broken words – "mama" and "dada" and "Uke" because he wasn't able to say the _L_ yet – and the first time he said that to Daryl, there had been tears in Daryl's eyes and he had lifted Hunter up and hugged him tight, exhaling a shaky breath in an effort to keep himself from crying.

Luke wasn't sure how to call Daryl daddy. It was what he thought Daryl as and it wasn't as if he thought Daryl would get mad with him calling him that. The word just always seemed to clump in his throat and could never seem to get it out.

When he finally did say it, it was completely by accident.

He was in first grade now and there was an assignment. Draw your family. And it was Luke's favorite kind of assignment because already, he knew he loved to draw more than anything. He eagerly set about the task., grabbing a few crayons from the tin can in the center of the table and smoothing out the piece of white construction paper in front of him. Around him, the other students chattered and laughed as they worked on their own drawings but Luke was quiet, concentrating completely.

After school, he rode the yellow school bus each day and the driver knew he was to get off at the daycare center where Beth worked. Beth and Hunter were there and Daryl would come after he was done at his job and he would drive them all home.

This day, Luke eagerly ran inside and found Beth and showed her his drawing. The four of them standing outside of their little brown house surrounded by trees. Beth smiled and declared it to be the best drawing she had ever seen and she couldn't wait to get home so she could proudly hang it on the refrigerator's door.

And when Daryl came in later that evening, Luke showed him the drawing with just as much excitement as he had earlier because now, he actually had a family to draw and show his drawings off to.

"Look, daddy! You and mommy and Hunter and me!" He exclaimed gleefully and only after he said that did he realize what he had just said.

He stopped bouncing on his toes and looked up at Daryl to see what the man would think of it. But Daryl just smiled and took the picture from the boy's hands into his, looking it over.

"Yeah," Daryl nodded. "Looks jus' like me," he said and Luke went back to grinning.

…

Everything was overwhelming to him at first. When he first began living with them and then afterwards, when he was adopted and became officially a Dixon, every good thing that happened always made him take pause and he had to remind himself to keep breathing.

Every Christmas, spending the night at his grandparents' farm – because he now had grandparents – and going to church and waking up in the morning and seeing presents underneath the tree with his name on them and then eating a big Christmas feast of prime rib. Every birthday with Beth throwing him a party with balloons and a homemade cake and his friends coming over for pizza that Uncle Glenn brought and opening the presents. Even things like going to the dentist or doctor or getting his hair cut for the first time, he sometimes had to just stop and remind himself that this was his life now. Daryl and Beth had saved him and given him all of this and this life wasn't going anywhere. They had given him a life.

Beth loved to encourage his love of art. Daryl had built him his very own art easel and Beth always made sure that he had plenty of paper, paints, pencils and crayons to draw with. She took him to the library so he could check out the big books there of famous painters and their famous paintings and they ran out of room on the refrigerator because Beth wanted to hang absolutely every single one of his works.

Some nights, Luke had nightmares. Nightmares of him back in his old home with his old mom and dad and they were still beating him and he hurt all over and he was so hungry and scared and sore and he'd wake up with a gasp, his body covered in sweat. And he didn't think he had been loud but it seemed as if every time it happened, Daryl was coming him into the room. Luke had seen Daryl's back and he knew they had the same scars and he wondered if Daryl still had nightmares, too.

On those nights, Daryl came into the room and silently gestured for Luke to follow him. And with his heart still pounding and sweat matting down his hair, Luke pulled himself out of bed and followed him from the room and into the kitchen. He squinted his eyes as Daryl flipped on the small light above the sink and he sat down at the table as Daryl then poured out a saucepan of milk and heated it on the stove. Luke didn't say anything and Daryl didn't either but he sat there at the table with him as Luke drank his mug of warm milk and got his heart to beat normally again.

"Le's get you some fresh pajamas," Daryl said quietly and Luke nodded, setting his now empty glass down on the table.

"Thanks, dad," he said in a matching low voice and Daryl didn't say anything else but he put a hand on the back of Luke's head.

He didn't say anything but he didn't have to because he was there. He was _always_ there and that's all Luke needed.

…

Molly Hamblin was his first friend. There were others that came over the years but Molly was always his best. She was the only one who had played with him while he was still a Ridgeway and Luke never forgot that.

They were the same age and living in a small town with an even smaller school, they were always in the same classroom and they were nearly inseparable as they grew. And because she was so important to Luke, she was important to Beth and Daryl, too, and they never had a problem when the girl came over in the afternoons after school because both of her parents worked and she didn't want to be alone. Luke went over to her house, often, too for school projects or studying for tests or jumping on the trampoline Molly got for her birthday. They used to have sleepovers, too, but when Molly turned eleven, both her mom and his mom said that the sleepovers couldn't happen anymore though they wouldn't say why.

As he grew older, he lost his baby fat in his face and his annoyingly curly hair seemed to tame down a bit and Beth had said more than once that he was growing into a very handsome young man – a comment that always made the tips of his ears turn red just like his dad's ears got when something was said that embarrassed him. But it seemed like Beth wasn't the only one to think that about him. In eighth grade, he started dating Mika Samuels and when he did, Molly didn't seem to be around as much as she used to be.

By now, they had moved into the white farmhouse from the little brown house in the woods – and Luke thought their house was the nicest, coolest house in town –and he came out of the backyard to find Beth in her vegetable garden and Daryl at the deep-freeze they had where they kept all of their hunted meat, sorting through it to see what they were running low on.

"I can't get a hold of her," Luke said with a frown.

"Maybe she's not home," Beth suggested logically.

"Where else would she be?" He asked and his frown grew deeper. "All her dad said was she couldn't come to the phone. She's ignoring me," he said, giving voice to the thought he had had buried in his mind, reluctant to think of as true but now there was no denying it. Molly was refusing to talk to him for some reason.

Beth stood up then and pulled her gardening gloves off. "I'm sure that's not true, Luke. Maybe she just really can't come to the phone right now."

"Mom!" Hunter then shouted from inside the house and Beth went to go see what was wrong this time.

Luke stood there, still frowning to himself, and he looked to Daryl and he closed the lid of the freezer and snapped the lock back into place, a piece of frozen meat in his hands. Daryl looked to him, too, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Don' look at me. I don't know anythin' 'bout women," he said.

"That's not true. How'd you get mom?" Luke asked.

"She took pity on me," Daryl answered.

"How _did_ you get mom?" Luke asked, now curious.

Daryl let out a little sigh. "Jus' one of those things, I guess. We met and it made sense and the rest jus' kind of fell into place after that."

Luke knew there was probably a lot more to the story but if he wanted to hear it, he'd be better off going and asking Beth about it. Even if his dad wasn't such a quiet guy, Luke knew that there were some things Daryl wouldn't talk about. It was obvious to everyone that he was absolutely crazy about his wife; obvious even to his kids. There wasn't a single thing Daryl wouldn't do for Beth. He basically built this house for her even though she had never asked him to.

When Luke first came to live with them, he wasn't used to anything like Daryl and Beth. His parents were always fighting and screaming, telling they hate one another and threatening to kill one another. They had no glass in the house anymore because they had already thrown everything at one another, smashing it against the walls and the floors. Luke thought everyone was like that.

But then he saw Beth and Daryl Dixon and they didn't even fight. They had a couple of disagreements but never about anything important, it seemed, and it was always forgotten within a couple of hours. Beth was an affectionate person and was always hugging or kissing or touching Daryl in some way. And Luke knew Daryl was just like him. He wasn't used to all of that but he never pushed Beth away because Luke saw the way the man leaned into his wife. He _wanted_ to get used to it.

"Can tell you one thing though," Daryl said and Luke looked to him, eagerly waiting for advice because his dad was the smartest guy he knew. "Mos' girls don' like bein' ignored," he said and with that, he took the meat into the house, leaving Luke alone.

Luke's brow furrowed at that. He hadn't been ignoring Molly though… had he?

That night, after dinner, he remained at the kitchen table to study for his history test that he had in school the next day and he really missed Molly because Molly was the absolute best in history. Hunter and Abby had carried their dishes to the sink and had left – Hunter racing back upstairs where he was working on some secret project and that made Daryl and Beth nervous because any moment now, they expected his bedroom to explode, and Abby went into the dining room, crawling back under the table where she usually had her dollhouse that Daryl had carved for her which she played with for hours every day.

Beth stood at the sink, humming to a song playing softly on the radio on the counter, and she was washing off dishes and loading them into the dishwasher and Daryl stood beside her, scooping leftovers into a plastic container – probably to be given to Uncle Merle tomorrow. Daryl always gave Uncle Merle the extra food because Daryl had said once that if he didn't, his older brother would forget to eat.

They didn't talk but they seemed to be in sync with one another. When he was done scooping the last of the food, he handed Beth the spoon and she rinsed it off before placing it in the dishwasher and she then reached into the cabinet, finding the appropriate lid for the container because Beth seemed to be the only one who was able to find the matching lids for the storage containers and she handed it to Daryl.

The house was quiet except for the occasional thud above their heads from Hunter's bedroom and the music on the radio. Sometimes, when it was quiet like this, Luke just wanted to close his eyes as if he was able to lose himself in the sound of nothing because even all of this time later of becoming a Dixon, he still couldn't get enough of how quiet it could sometimes be. And for a second, his eyes did slide shut and when he opened them again, they came into focus on Daryl leaning in and giving Beth a soft kiss on her lips and her eyes fluttered shut for a moment before they opened once more and they fell right on him and the smile she gave him made Luke lower his eyes from watching anymore.

Sometimes, they acted as if they were completely alone and Luke felt as if he was bursting in on what should be something private between them.

Without a word, he gathered his book and notebook, and slipping as quietly from his chair as he could, he left the kitchen and headed into the dining room. Daryl must have said something then because Beth's happy, gentle laughter followed after him. Luke didn't know if he would ever consider his dad to be a funny guy but to his mom, Daryl was the funniest guy in the world and he could always make her laugh.

Luke dropped to his knees and crawled underneath the table, joining Abby. She smiled at him and then continued playing quietly and Luke laid on his stomach, opening his book and trying to get back to studying about the Revolutionary War.

It was still quiet. Abby softly talking to herself as she arranged the dolls in the rooms of the house. A random heavy thud from the second floor. The crickets outside. And Beth's soft laughter trailing out once more from the kitchen.

…

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 **Thank you very much for reading and commenting!**


	2. Hunter

**Hunter is very hyper and manic and I found myself really loving writing the world from his eyes. Abby will be the last chapter and I know many of you are looking forward to that one. Please enjoy this one!**

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 **2/3.** Hunter.

Hunter knew that "Go to Work with Your Mom/Dad" Day would be his favorite day. As soon as his teacher told them about it and sent home the flier with all of the students, Hunter had been as excited as he usually was for Christmas or for his birthday. He hung the flier on the refrigerator with two magnets and climbed up on the stool, circling the day on the calendar on the wall with a red marker and it was never a question as to whether he would be going to work with his mom or dad.

That Thursday morning, he sprang out of bed, already wide awake, and raced to the bathroom. He then raced back to his room and got dressed as quickly as he could. His daddy wore blue jeans and a tee-shirt to work every day so that's what he would wear today, too. He tugged on a pair of jeans and a plain blue tee-shirt and he pulled on socks and his shoes and when he raced from his room and down the stairs, he was still the first one awake besides daddy and Kyle.

"Hey," Daryl grunted, filling the coffee machine and flipping the switch. "You hungry?" He then asked, going to the cabinet where they kept the boxes of cereal.

"Yep!" Hunter exclaimed perhaps a little too loudly and he went into the laundry room without having to be told and scooped some of the cat food into Kyle's bowl, the black cat sitting by and waiting impatiently for it. He also filled the cat's other bowl with fresh water from the faucet in the laundry tub and when he came out again, his mommy was up now, too.

She gave him a smile. "You're going to need a hoodie today, Hunter," she said. "Those bay doors are open all day and it's still chilly outside."

He didn't argue. He wasn't going to argue about anything today. Today was the best day. So without a word, he turned and ran out of the kitchen and back up the stairs to his bedroom. Luke was awake now, too, and they nearly collided in the hallway.

Back in the kitchen, Daryl had put a bowl of Honey Nut O's down on the table along with a glass of chocolate milk and Hunter scrambled up into his seat to eat. He pulled out a piece of paper that he had folded from his jeans pocket and smoothed it out on the table, reading over the first question.

"What is your mom or dad's job?" Hunter read out loud. Beth handed him a pencil so he could write down his answers and he spoke out loud as he wrote. "My dad is the best mechanic in the whole state!"

Daryl smirked as he poured himself a cup of coffee but didn't say anything.

"How long have they been doing their job?" Hunter asked and then lifted his eyes.

"'bout fifteen years," Daryl answered and Hunter quickly wrote the answer down before taking a scoop of his cereal, shoving the spoon into his mouth.

"How did they know it was what they wanted to do?" Hunter read.

"Hunter, chew," Beth said.

Daryl shrugged. "Only thing I was really good at."

Beth frowned a little at him. "That isn't true," she said but Daryl just smirked a little again and took another sip of coffee.

Hunter wrote with his tongue poked out from the corner of his mouth, filling in the blanks with his own answers. His daddy wasn't just a mechanic and it wasn't the only thing he was good at. He agreed with his mommy. His daddy was awesome at so many other things. The other kids in his class still talked about when he came to speak to them on career day. His daddy did a thousand different things and he did them all so good and everyone was jealous because Daryl was his daddy and not theirs. And now, he got to spend the entire day with his daddy, working by his side.

And Hunter was right. It was the best day. They got to the auto shop and he knew the other men there. Dale the owner, Uncle Cesar, one of daddy's closest friends, Zach and Oscar and they all greeted him with ruffles of his hair and pats on the back and it was Oscar's day to choose the music on the stereo so they listened to old Motown all day. Daryl already has a car in his bay that he had been working on the day before and hoped to finish fixing the vehicle's transmission. Hunter had never worked on a transmission before and he stood next to Daryl as he showed him and told him everything he was doing before letting Hunter help, too.

At lunchtime, they both went to eat outside, behind the garage. Mommy had made them both peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and they sat on the ground, their backs resting against the wall, and they ate their sandwiches, chips and cookies. Hunter looked at the grease smudged on his hands – just like his daddy had smudged on his – and he grinned to himself.

He was silently glad this was something he could share with him and not with his brother or sister, too. This was something just him and his daddy had in common. He had hunting with Luke and Abby was special because she was the baby and the only girl and there had been more than one time when Hunter had just kind of felt lost in the shuffle of it all.

But when it came to cars and fixing them, Hunter could have this with him.

That night, back at home, he finished filling out the worksheet to turn into the teacher the next day.

"Would you like to do what your parents do when you grow up?" The last question asked and Hunter didn't even hesitate before writing his answer.

"I want to be just like my daddy in every single way!" He wrote quickly.

His mommy told him that he was his father's son and it wasn't just his natural understanding of machines. In some ways, he was nothing like Daryl. He was too loud and too hyper and he always felt as if he could feel electricity shocking him from nerve to nerve that always made him want to get up and move. He always had to be doing something and he got into too much trouble sometimes but it wasn't as if he went out of his way to do it. He just sometimes got so bored.

His parents tried to think of ways to keep him busy and one of those things were going on scavenger hunts with his mommy in the woods. Find this kind of mushroom or this kind of berry and they would set off, Hunter trying to find everything on her list because if he did, she usually gave him a little treat. A piece of Bazooka bubble gum and he would be at it for hours afterwards, trying to blow the biggest bubble that any of them had ever seen.

On one scavenger hunt, mommy had tripped over a hidden root sticking out of the ground and tripped, twisting something and landing with a small cry. It was just the two of them and she wasn't able to walk back.

"I'm gonna go get daddy," Hunter said and slipped his backpack from off his back, placing it down next to Beth. "I have a Handi-Snack in there if you get hungry. I'll be right back, mommy."

"I know you will," Beth smiled up at him and she didn't look scared at all.

Hunter ran as fast as he could – and he had been told that he was the fastest runner in his grade – and when he burst through the trees, he saw his daddy in the backyard, just coming out of his wood-shop.

"Daddy, it's mommy!" Hunter called out to him and Daryl didn't waste even a second in asking questions. He just followed after him.

Mommy was brave and daddy was the one to look pale as he knelt down beside her, his hand tenderly gripping her leg as his other went to her ankle, looking it over.

"You did great, Hunter," Beth smiled at him and he beamed. "Kept your cool just like your daddy does."

Hunter kept smiling. "He doesn't look like he's cool right now."

And it was true because even Hunter could see his hands shaking a little.

"Quiet," Daryl muttered and both Hunter and Beth tried not to laugh.

Daryl carried Beth on his back through the trees and back to the house and Hunter walked beside them, carrying both of their backpacks.

From then on, Daryl came on their scavenger hunts with them even though Beth kept telling him that she didn't need a babysitter. He just ignored it and Hunter silently liked that this was something that just the three of them did together.

…

He loved his Uncle Shawn but Uncle Merle was just the coolest and anytime his parents got him to come over and babysit, Hunter spent the day in anticipation.

His parents went out once a week. Usually on Wednesday nights. Sometimes, his mommy played her music at the coffee shop but other times, they just went for rides on daddy's motorcycle or went out to eat. Mommy had said that it was important for them to remember that they weren't just parents but husband and wife, too.

Merle came and Luke, Hunter and Abby would all go running to him, Merle laughing and putting Luke in a playful headlock and swinging Hunter over his shoulder and was always so gentle with Abby, calling her his little princess and picking her up as if she was as fragile as glass. Daryl would go over the usual rules. One pudding cup and no ice cream or soda and kids in bed by nine and numbers of others he might need by the phone in the kitchen.

"You worry too much. How many times I do this?" Merle asked.

"'nough times to know not to piss Beth off but you do anyway," Daryl answered and Merle just laughed.

Beth came down the stairs then in a black dress and heels and Merle let out a whistle before Daryl elbowed him roughly in the side.

"Uncle Merle, can we watch a movie?" Luke asked.

"Sure can. Got the _Scream_ movies in my truck," Merle grinned and Beth just gave him a look that made him grin wider.

Beth hugged the three of them and kissed their heads and made them promise that they would all be good for their Uncle Merle and they promised her they would as they always did. And as they left, Daryl told them what he always told them.

"Don't burn the house down. I ain't buildin' another one," he said and then closed the door behind them.

"A'right," Merle said once they were alone. "Le's make some popcorn and see if we can find a movie to watch. You do your homework?" He asked the two boys as they all followed him into the kitchen.

"Yeah," Luke answered as he always did.

"Nope!" Hunter answered as he always did.

And Merle just grinned as he began opening cabinets and the refrigerator.

There was an old black and white movie from the fifties on television – _Creature from the Black Lagoon_ – and Merle didn't think it would be too scary. Hunter sat on the floor in front of the television with his bowl of popcorn and watched every second of it and Luke sat on the couch and even though it wasn't scary, Luke was quiet as he always was when something even a little bit scary was on television. And Abby wasn't even watching. She was too busy having one of her tea parties and filling Uncle Merle's pink plastic teacup and he kept asking for extra sugar.

Hunter didn't know that much about his uncle. He didn't know where he lived or what he did for money. He only knew that he was older than daddy, had been in the army for a little bit and had been in prison, too. Other than that, Hunter didn't know anything and it seemed as if Uncle Merle or daddy didn't want them to know anything. He also knew that daddy always seemed to be taking care of Uncle Merle. Mommy, too. On his birthday, they had a dinner and a cake for him and whenever they had dinner and they had plenty of left overs, daddy always scooped some into a plastic container to give to Uncle Merle.

"You and Luke are brothers and family takes care of family," daddy told him and Hunter nodded his head because that made sense.

Luke was his brother and Abby was his sister and he'd do anything for them. He had already gotten into more than one fight because some idiot had called Abby stupid. Just because she couldn't hear that great and didn't talk a lot didn't make her stupid. If they ever got lost in the woods, they would _wish_ Abby was the one looking for them. She may have been little but she was already tracking and getting just as good as their daddy was at it.

He knew he'd get in a million fights if it meant defending Luke or Abby.

Hunter had always loved his Uncle Merle and when he was even younger than he was now, he wanted to be just like him. Uncle Merle did whatever he wanted and didn't seem to care about rules or being good and no one could tell him what to do.

And that's what Hunter wanted, too, until Uncle Merle sat him down and told him that he had to be better for his parents; that his parents loved him more than anything; that before his daddy met his mommy, his daddy had loved hunting more than anything but that had all changed now. There was Beth and Luke and Abby and him, too, and they were a family and they all had to stick together without driving one another crazy. If you didn't love your family, who would you love?

Daryl and Beth got back home before nine, Beth's heels hanging in her hand and Daryl's jacket wrapped around her shoulders.

"You two have a good time?" Uncle Merle grinned at them.

Daryl just looked at him and Beth ignored him.

"Come on, Miss Abby. You, too, Hunter. Time to get ready for bed," she said.

"It's almost finished, mommy. Can I see how it ends?" Hunter asked and she and daddy must have had a good date that night because she just nodded and lifted Abby up in her arms and carried her up the stairs.

"You gonna have another one, baby brother?" Uncle Merle asked as Daryl sat down in the armchair and Luke handed him the bowl with a little bit of the popcorn left.

"And risk havin' another one jus' like you? Hell, no," Daryl smirked a little.

"Hell. These kids are nothin' like me. House is still standin', ain't it?"

Daryl didn't say anything else but Hunter could feel his eyes on the back of his head as he kept watching the movie, eating the last kernels of popcorn in his little bowl.

"That one ain't like me either," Uncle Merle said then with a little laugh. "May not seem like it but there's no denyin' that that one's your boy," he said.

And Hunter wasn't too sure what they were talking about but whatever it was, he was pretty sure it was something that was to smile about so he did.

…

"Yuck!" He exclaimed as he walked into the kitchen to see his parents kissing. He had never seen any of his friends' parents kiss as much as his did and it wasn't even as if they did it out in the open all of the time. Most of the time, he knew they tried to do it when no one else was around. Hunter just had a habit of walking in on them.

They were in the kitchen this morning, Beth leaning against the counter and Daryl leaning into her, his hands on either side of her as if boxing her in.

"Quiet," daddy told him and pushed himself away from mommy and the counter.

"Hunter, no," mommy said as she came to stop him before he could reach for anything inside of the refrigerator. "You've already eaten breakfast and we're going to grandma and grandpa's after church."

Hunter frowned. "But I'm hungry," he whined a little. "And it's hot out and the church will be stuffy and you know Father Gabriel is going to talk for _hours_. I can't starve to death in that pew!"

Daddy snorted with laughter and mommy just stared down at him. And then she went to the cabinet and pulled out a granola bar, handing it to him. Hunter grinned up at her and ripped the wrapper open, happily taking a large bite.

The church was stuffy – just like he knew it would be. It was a simple white square church with pews on either side and a podium up front where Father Gabriel stood. Beth led them into a pew near the back and Luke and Hunter filed in after her and Daryl brought up the rear, sitting down at the end with Abby in his lap. When he was younger, he was able to bring coloring books or his toy cars with him but Beth had said he was old enough to listen to the sermons now and he had to pay attention.

Hunter rarely paid attention though. He liked to count the cracks in the ceiling or each tiny square of stained glass in the windows or list every model of car he knew in his head.

Grandpa Hershel and Grandma Annette came and Grandpa gave him a wink and Hunter grinned at him as they sat down in the pew in front of them. Aunt Maggie and Uncle Glenn came then, too, with baby Meg in her carrier, carried by Uncle Glenn and they sat down beside Grandpa and Grandma. Mommy leaned forward and Aunt Maggie turned around they whispered for a few minutes to one another.

Hunter sighed heavily and looked up to daddy but he was looking ahead and not really paying attention either. He seemed to glaze over like Hunter did during most of the Sunday services.

"Grandma!" Hunter hissed just as Father Gabriel came up on the alter and the church stood, taking out their books and singing the first hymn.

Grandma turned and bent over so she was closer to him.

"What's for lunch today?" He asked and she laughed softly.

"Chicken salad," she whispered in his ear and Hunter's stomach grumbled.

As expected, Father Gabriel talked. And talked. And talked some more. Hunter turned his head to see that mommy and Luke seemed to be listening to him. He then turned his head to look at daddy. Abby was asleep, her head resting against his chest and Hunter frowned. Abby was so lucky. And then Meg began crying and Uncle Glenn stood up to take her outside and Hunter frowned deeper, thinking how lucky he was to be able to leave.

He began fidgeting. He would scoot himself back and forth and then he would stretch his legs out under the pew in front of them, trying to see how far his feet could go. And then he tried to see how long he could rest a finger Luke's arm before Luke impatiently swatted him away. Annoying Luke was always a fun way to pass the time but even today, it was too hot and Hunter sighed heavily.

Mommy leaned forward to be seen past Luke and she put a finger to her lips.

Hunter frowned but sank down lower in the pew and began tapping his fingers on his stomach. He could feel sweat trickle down his back and he tried to scratch his back uncomfortably against the back of the hard wooden pew. Chicken salad. He wondered what else Grandma Annette had made. Maybe they could have cold pickles and cherry pie, too. Grandma was always baking pies in the summertime.

When the church stood again to sing the final hymn, Hunter had never been so happy and he sang along, too – loud and off key but he didn't care because they could leave and go eat now.

"Yes!" He exclaimed as soon as they were outside and he tore at the tie from around his neck that his mommy insisted he wear every Sunday for service. "Let's go eat! Why does Father Gabriel have to talk so much? Does he even hear himself when he talks? What does he even talk-" his words were suddenly muffled.

Daryl was standing behind him and he reached a hand around, covering Hunter's mouth with it, and Hunter saw Father Gabriel coming down the church steps, talking with another parishioner.

"We have to head home first," Beth said to Daryl as they headed towards their truck in the gravel parking lot. "I left that bread cooling on the counter and I wanted to take it to mom and dad's today."

Hunter gasped as he tore off and ran ahead. How could he have forgotten that his mommy had baked bread for today? His mommy baked the best bread. He wondered if that's why his daddy married her. He didn't think about things like that yet but he bet he would marry a girl if she baked bread just as good.

…

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 **Thank you very much for reading and please review!  
**


	3. Abby

**Shorter than the others but I actually found Abby to be the most difficult to write and I know who she is. I just had trouble expressing that. I hope you liked seeing the Dixon family through the three kids because sometimes, writing from their POV can be so difficult. And I hope if you celebrate in the US, you had an amazing Thanksgiving yesterday!**

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…

 **3/3.** Abby.

The heat stopped working one afternoon and Daryl spent hours in the basement, trying to get it working again. He went to the hardware store but returned, saying that T-Dog didn't have the part that was needed to fix it but he made a couple of calls and it was up at a store in Atlanta. He was going to drive there that night but Beth told him to wait and go in the morning. It was too late and he wouldn't get there in time anyway and she didn't want him driving when he would be too tired.

Mommy said that it would be an adventure and smiled as she told the kids to gather blankets and pillows and they all did so eagerly before following her downstairs where daddy was in the living room, already building a fire in the fireplace.

They made mugs of steaming hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows over the flames and Luke read them ghost stories from some book he had about reading scary stories in the dark. Kyle came to them sometime in the late evening and Abby smiled as the cat purred and stretched himself out in front of her, looking for love and affection – and Abby was more than happy to give him some.

A little bit later, mommy said that they should get some rest because daddy was leaving first thing in the morning to drive to Atlanta for that part he needed and they all laid down, burrowing themselves underneath their piles of blankets. They had Abby lay closest to the fire because, as they told her, she was the littlest and she didn't argue because that was said to her all of the time. She was always the littlest.

So she curled in front of the fire and Kyle curled beside her and daddy covered her with an extra blanket. And in the morning, she was usually the first in her family to wake up besides daddy and she sat up, looking as the rest of her family still slept. Hunter had slept beside her and he was flopped on his back and even though the room was freezing this morning, he had kicked his blankets off as if too hot. Luke was sleeping, curled into a tiny ball as if he didn't want to take up too much space. And mommy was sleeping on her side with daddy behind her, his arm around her middle, holding her close as if she was his teddy bear.

His eyes were open and he looked at her and she looked at him and they shared the same slight smile. She pushed the blankets off of her as daddy kissed mommy on the cheek and she murmured something to him and he stood up then. Abby stood up, too, and grabbed her teddy bear with the green ribbon tied around his neck and holding it in the crook of her arm, she followed daddy from the living room to the kitchen. It was cold without the blankets over her and she gave a little shiver.

In the kitchen, daddy swung her up and set her on the counter. She gave him a smile and he kissed her on the forehead before going to the refrigerator. He took the milk out and warmed a cup in a saucepan on the stove before handing it to her. She smiled at him with her eyes as she cupped it with both hands and drank it.

Daddy was always quiet but he was practically silent in the morning and she was always quiet and everyone said that she was a mini-mommy but she was just like daddy. She sometimes wondered if she would be so quiet if she could hear fully.

He began making fried eggs at the stove and frying up sausage links and she continued sitting on the counter, drinking her warm milk. The smells filtered from the kitchen and floated into the living room and soon, everyone was up. Mommy smiled as she saw her and kissed her on the head and tucking blonde hair behind her ears, she turned up the volume on her hearing aids that she always turned down at night. And now she could hear everyone around her. Hunter was talking about this dream he had had where he had been running from something in the woods and he was pretty sure it had been a zombie and Luke was asking Daryl if he could go to Atlanta with him today and Abby continued sitting there, drinking her milk and wishing she could turn down her hearing aids without her mommy seeing her.

She loved her family but they could be so loud. She liked things to be quiet.

She finished her milk and daddy must have known because he was taking the cup from her and then lifting her again, he set her back down on her feet on the floor before returning to the stove. Mommy handed her a fresh strawberry that she had just taken from the container in the refrigerator and Abby smiled at her in thanks. Mommy kissed her on the head and then took the fruit to the counter to chop up.

Abby stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room, holding her strawberry rather than eating it and watching her family. She did this most days and she had always done it. She much rather liked to watch everyone. That's why daddy told her she was the best little tracker. She took the time to look and watch and really see things around her. And Abby smiled whenever he said that. She wanted to be just a good a hunter and tracker as her daddy. Reading the signs didn't need ears.

Because she was so quiet, sometimes her family forgot she was there. She was playing in the living room and Luke and his best friend, Molly, were studying at the dining room table and she witnessed when Luke leaned over and kissed Molly for the first time. She was sitting on the swing in the large southern live oak tree in the front of the house when Hunter accidentally scratched the side of mommy's car with his bike and was the quietest she had ever heard Hunter to be as he tried to fix it. And he did because mommy never noticed anything and not even daddy said anything and Abby never tattled on him.

She never said anything to anyone about anything.

And she had witnessed her parents fight – though that didn't happen often and they tried to do it when the kids weren't home. But Abby was so quiet, it sometimes slipped their minds that their littlest was there to see it. Mommy and daddy hardly ever fought but when they did, it seemed to always be about money. Mommy thought they had enough and daddy seemed to think that they never did and mommy hated how much daddy worked to try and get them more money.

"I never asked for any of this!" Daddy yelled one afternoon. "You think I wanted the wife and the kids and the house? Hell, I was doin' jus' fine on my own 'fore you forced your way through my door!"

"I'm sorry I've ruined your life!" Mommy yelled back. "And if that's what you really think, you can just leave right now, Daryl Dixon!"

"Girl, you wouldn' make it one day without me and my paychecks! You think your pathetic daycare check can take care of this family?"

"That would be my problem! If we're such a burden to you, you can just leave and go back into your woods and never come out!"

"I will!"

"Good!"

And Abby flinched as the backdoor slammed shut and she could hear mommy crying in the kitchen. She pulled herself out from underneath the dining room table and come to stand in the doorway of the kitchen, looking at mommy as mommy tried to wipe at her cheeks and she sniffled, taking deep breaths. And then the backdoor opened seconds later and daddy came back and neither of them said anything as he wrapped his arms around mommy and held her as she hugged him tightly and he whispered things in her ear.

Daddy finished with the eggs and sausage and mommy finished cutting the strawberries with banana slices and they sat down at the table for breakfast. Mommy suggested they all go to Atlanta for the day so daddy could get the part he needed to fix the heater and they could spend a nice day in the city. And Hunter and Luke immediately saying things they wanted to do – what they wanted from the hardware store and where they wanted to go and eat lunch – and each suggestion was louder than the next and mommy told them to stop yelling and daddy reached over and turned her hearing aids down for her so everything wasn't so loud.

And Abby smiled up at him and he smiled at her, too.

…

The Dixon family didn't watch a lot of television. They had one in the living room and they watched the occasional show and when Uncle Merle was over, they had it turned on a lot more but for the most part, it sat in their living room, usually off.

One Saturday afternoon, it was raining outside and they were all in the living room. Mommy was tinkling away on the piano, working on one of her own songs, daddy was sitting on the couch with Hunter, both looking over a car magazine and Hunter pointing to pictures and asking if they could build that car next. Luke was sitting on the window seat at the front picture window, drawing in his sketch pad as he usually was. Abby sat on the floor, having a tea party for herself and her stuffed bear and the television was on but it was on mute and only because daddy wanted to see the weather forecast for this upcoming weekend and the two-day long hunting trip he had planned.

Daddy leaned forward to take the remote from the coffee table and turn the television off but he accidentally hit the channel up button instead and when he did and changed the program, Abby suddenly gasped with what she saw. Daddy froze and even mommy stopped playing the piano to turn and see what had gotten her attention on the television.

They watched an episode of _Cupcake Wars_ but then Hunter and Luke got quickly bored and Luke went back to drawing and Hunter went back to pouring over the car magazine. Daddy and mommy watched it with her though. There was some sort of marathon on and one episode led right into another and then another after that and Abby sat on the floor, her eyes widening with each episode as the two final contestants had to make one-thousand cupcakes, and she would look back to mommy and daddy sitting on the couch and she would beam at them and they would both smile at her in return.

The next day, mommy called her into the kitchen and she was smiling, wearing an apron, and she helped Abby put one on, too. There was a stool kept in the kitchen for Abby to stand on and help at the counters and she stepped up on it now, beaming widely when she saw everything on the island counter because she knew exactly what they were going to be doing even if mommy hadn't said yet.

They spent the afternoon baking cupcakes. Mommy had a cupcake cookbook open and they made chocolate cupcakes and peanut butter cupcakes and they made their own chocolate buttercream frosting and Abby giggled as she carefully sprinkled sprinkles over each of them. Mommy laughed as she playfully swiped flour down her nose and she squealed with laughter, making mommy laugh harder.

Daddy, Luke and Hunter had two cupcakes each and they drove some to the farm for grandma and grandpa and Aunt Maggie and Uncle Glenn and Abby made sure to save one for Uncle Merle, too, who ate his in two bites and kissed her on the cheek, telling her it was the best damn thing he had ever eaten.

When Abby asked her mommy if they could bake more cupcakes, mommy just smiled and told her that of course they could and they would cook every cupcake in the cupcake cookbook if she wanted to. And of course, she wanted to.

And mommy rubbed a finger down her nose again like wiping it with flour and Abby giggled.

…

She wasn't completely deaf. She still had about thirty percent of her hearing but the world for so long was just a mixture of hums and murmurs before her parents had taken her to the doctor and she took all of these tests and she got her hearing aids.

It took her a while to get used to them but she did and she could lower or raise the volume and she knew her parents wanted her to get used to the noise of the world.

But sometimes, she couldn't. She couldn't get used to it and she hated it and she wished she could just run away from it all and go where there was no noise at all.

She woke up with her ears hurting and her head pounding and she just wanted to cry. The house was quiet and she could see it was still dark outside but she knew that even though it was still so early, she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. She walked herself to the bathroom in the dark and once she was empty and her hands were washed and her teeth were brushed, she went back into her bedroom where she got herself dressed. Jeans and a hooded sweatshirt and warm socks and her boots. Her bedroom was across the hall from her parents and when she came out of her own room, she saw a soft light coming from theirs and she walked towards it.

She wasn't surprised they were awake. This hadn't been planned but her daddy always seemed to know when she needed to get out of here.

Mommy was standing at her dresser, the small lamp on the nightstand table beside the bed the light that was on, and the bathroom door was closed. Mommy smiled at her, still sleepy. Without a word, Abby went and climbed up onto the bed, sitting down, and mommy sat behind her. She kissed Abby on the cheek and then began combing her hair and while she was, the bathroom door opened and daddy came out, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt and he gave them both a little slight smile before going and sitting down to tug on his boots.

Once mommy had put her hair in a braid, they all went downstairs where mommy made coffee and daddy made toast and poured her a glass of milk and they were still quiet as they ate and drank their breakfasts. And when she and daddy left the house, the sky was just beginning to turn pink and mommy kissed her on the head and daddy on the lips and told them to be careful.

Daddy had his crossbow slung over his back and Abby fell into step beside him. The birds were chirping in the trees and the breeze that morning was slight and chilly but it was all so quiet, she felt as if her ears were finally no longer throbbing in her skull. The woods always helped. Her daddy had been bringing her out here for so long and anytime her head and ears were hurting badly, he would bring her out here. He was a man who liked things to be quiet, too. He understood her.

Her eyes fell to the ground and saw the way the leaves had been disturbed. And she knew daddy saw it, too, because he pulled his crossbow into his hands.

"Which way?" He asked and they knew he knew the answer but he wanted her to say. He was training her to be a tracker like him, too, and she took her lessons seriously. Luke had been this young when daddy had taught him but they all knew she was already better at this than him.

Abby studied the ground for a moment more and than pointed west. "This way," she said softly and daddy nodded and smiled and he followed after as she led the way.

…

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 **Thank you very much for reading and please review!**


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